Sunday, October 14, 2007

Yet One More Surprise

Well, Surprise Baby had one more shocker in store for us: a full head of DARK hair. Given what I understand about how dominant and recessive genetic traits work, I don't think there's more than a minuscule chance of her keeping it for long, but for now our family has one brunette member.

[If you're not at all interested in the details of delivery, you can skip the next two paragraphs.] As I mentioned previously, contractions started Wednesday morning, then let up in the afternoon, and restarted Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon I decided that, since she was likely coming, I would just as soon she hurried up, so we took some steps to encourage things to move in that direction, including a visit to my acupuncturist. Contractions gradually picked up through the afternoon and evening, and we started making arrangements for someone to spend the night with the boys so we could go to the hospital when the time came. McOllie came over and watched Survivor, 30 Rock and The Daily Show with me, then crashed on the couch while Mavis and I headed to the hospital around midnight.

At the hospital, a check showed that the baby was "high and floaty," and my cervix really hadn't dilated at all to speak of. We called sil J, giving her the option of coming then or waiting a few hours, and she opted to come and join us in walking around the perimeter of the Wilcox Women's Pavilion from just after 1 am to almost 3 am. At that point, the contractions were coming quite closely together and were pretty intense, but the baby was still high and my cervix not dilating much. I sat on the birthing ball and listened to my hypnobirthing recording for about 20 minutes, and then my water broke as I sat up for the nurse to check my vitals. I started shaking and showing signs of going into transition, so I got into the jacuzzi to help me relax through the next hard contractions. After two hours, though I still wasn't ready to start pushing (so much for each baby coming faster than the previous one!), I got out of the tub for a change of position. After just a few more contractions, things started feeling a little more pushy, so I got on the bed and pushed her out in about 20-25 minutes--short compared to most babies, but a seeming eternity after the 10 minutes it took for Number Two.

[Start again here if you skipped the gory details.] So, she was born at 6:27 am, Friday, October 12. Her Aunt J, faithful birth attendant, got to cut the cord. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21 inches long. She spent most of her first day sleeping and looking cute, for which I was very grateful. Well, the cute part was sort of expected, but the sleeping wasn't!

First-day visitors included her big brothers, wonderful friend M, who took over care of the boys in the morning so McOllie could go to work, and my mother, who arrived in the early afternoon after being picked up at the airport by Uncle J.

We came home Saturday evening to a delicious dinner provided by friend Mabel, and are trying to settle into something of a routine. Mavis's parents fly in tomorrow, his sister Tuesday, and my dad next weekend for the blessing.

Way to go JA. What a beautiful family, are you sure you want to shut down that factory?? Congratulations on such a wonderful "surprise" and even more congratulations on not having her in the week or two surrounding Christmas, which is in my experience when most "surprises" show up (really, who would plan to have a baby then??)

Aw, the best thing ever cooked up on Fugue Salad! (Sorry, someone had to say it.) What a sweet little rosebud. And I'm glad the delivery went well. I can't wait to hear about her own personality as it emerges over time. Congratulations to the whole lovely family!

Your shock at seeing her dark hair reminds me of the HUGE surprise of giving birth to my first child and he was BLOND (this, having 2 dark brunette parents and being 1/4 Japanese). He's entering puberty now and his dark hair is finally beginning to appear :)

I don't often think that babies are beautiful. In fact, I told my sister that her son looked "kind of like an alien", a thing I'll never live down. But she is beautiful. I can't wait to get to know her.